As another morning sun slowly rises above sea level, the story of the first time a German GIs set foot on the island of Okinawa is officially yesterday. In the places where these outsiders chose to land, the sound of guns and cannons disappeared, replaced by the roar of machines and the boiling popularity, a large number of landing ships busily shuttled back and forth between the beach and the landing fleet, and the trestle bridges, whether simple or regular, were gradually extending into the depths of the sea with the efforts of the engineering troops.

But behind this hectic scene is the devastation left behind by a day and a night of fierce fighting. The smooth and beautiful sandy beaches, the lush woods and even the moss on the hills are gone, and there are only large scorched earth and some burnt wooden stakes as far as the eye can see, and in those places where fierce battles once took place, the strips of cloth and incomplete weapons that once belonged to military uniforms or battle flags are now in a fragmented state, and many of the incomplete weapons have simply returned to the state of parts, and the blood spilled by the soldiers has long been solidified into a dark black imprint under the combined action of cold and time, and there are many places that are no longer recognizable. Something that smells disgusting......

"Stop moving! The 2nd platoon is responsible for guarding, and the 1st platoon, the 3rd platoon, and the sister rest in place for 5 minutes! ”

After looking at the watch on his right wrist, the officer, standing in the compartment of a fully tracked K25 open amphibious armored vehicle, with a silver-gray double-flower collar badge on a blue background and a single gold star epaulette on a blue-edged gray background, shouted to his soldiers. Soon, the Type III amphibious tank in the front, followed by a K25 armored vehicle and a Type 1924 half-track armored vehicle, stopped, and the more than 200 soldiers behind them who were marching north along the road in two columns, except for those who were ordered to carry out the guard duty, the rest sat down on the spot almost immediately. Although these are super-trained Marines, continuous combat and marching are a serious challenge to anyone's physical strength, not to mention that the weight of these soldiers has increased year by year with the advancement of weapons - in 1914, each German Army soldier only had to carry 45 pounds of about 20 kilograms of equipment, by 1924 during the German-American War, the standard equipment of German soldiers increased to 28.5 kilograms, and four years later during the German-Russian War. Every German soldier involved in the war had to carry at least 35 kilograms of equipment on his back, and due to the mode of operation and logistics, the individual march weight of the Marines even reached nearly 40 kilograms!

Compared with their predecessors, the individual weapons carried by German soldiers at this time were more advanced, and the Mauser 1898 rifle had basically withdrawn from the equipment sequence, and was replaced by a GG semi-automatic rifle, an MP24 submachine gun, and a Gigi 1917 and Gigi 1924 pistols. A 4.5 kg GG semi-automatic rifle plus a 0.35 kg Gigi 1917 pistol or a 4.6 kg MP24 submachine gun plus a 0.3 kg Gigi 1924 pistol is obviously much heavier than a 3.9 kg Mauser 1898 rifle. Correspondingly, another point of weight gain is ammunition. In the past, German soldiers armed with Mauser 1898 rifles only needed to carry 50-60 rounds of ammunition with them in wartime, and the faster rate of fire of semi-automatic rifles could consume bullets much faster than the old-fashioned manual loading rifles, for which German riflemen armed with 66 semi-automatic rifles had to carry twice as much ammunition as their predecessors, but do not underestimate the extra 50 rounds of 7.92 mm rifle rounds, they also weigh 1.5 kilograms, and they are fully capable of becoming "camels" in the long march The last "straw", while the shooter with the 19924 submachine gun carried more bullets, reaching 180-220 rounds, with a total ammunition weight of about 2.5 kg.

Weapons are only one component of individual equipment. Compared to the old German soldiers who only had to wear leather helmets or old steel helmets of the M16 type. Now German soldiers are better cared for all over their bodies - M27 steel helmets, a new type of steel helmet specially prepared for the German-Russian and German-Japanese wars, divided into army type, marine type and paratrooper type. But in terms of ballistic performance, the M27 can be regarded as the best steel helmet of this era, but the weight of 1.2 kilograms still makes soldiers complain during long marches and battles.

In 1929, the square rucksack was still the iconic equipment of German soldiers, but compared with fifteen years ago, the "content" in this rucksack can be said to be much richer, the underwear is still one to two sets per person, in addition to a spare pair of military boots, an emergency ration for a soldier to eat for one or two days, gun maintenance tools and a small number of personal items, it is worth mentioning that this rucksack has been improved and has a certain bulletproof function, that is, the former wooden underframe has been replaced with an alloy with a certain thickness. But the weight has also increased accordingly.

In addition, high-quality military coats, tents, and military blankets were folded and bundled on the rucksack, and the belt under the rucksack was tied to common equipment such as daggers, sapper shovels, water bottles, leather ammunition bags, grenade backpacks, and more often German soldiers also needed to carry another special equipment - gas mask canisters.

While the soldiers sat down to rest, the previous lieutenant company commander was not idle, he quickly climbed to the turret of the only tank in the group and stood upright to observe the situation ahead with a high-powered telescope. At the end of this dirt road there is a small town, from which it appears to be all low, small* squares, and around it, the fields of late autumn take on a lifeless dry yellow. Although the sun had risen, the town was quiet, with no smoke, no pedestrians, not even a dog or a cow in sight.

Just as the burly officer was wondering, the communications officer below shouted:

"Lieutenant, the commander of the command wants to talk to you!"

At this time, the German ground forces were basically equipped with two types of radio communication equipment, one was a transmitter-type radio for long-distance communication, and the other was a backpack-type radio FM walkie-talkie he was using, which was produced by Siemens Electric in Germany, and the effective talking distance could reach up to 15 kilometers, and the only drawback was that the weight of 20 kilograms needed to be carried by a special soldier.

"Yes, I'm Lieutenant Hank from Block 1, 3rd Street, Fort Ning...... Yes, we are only a few kilometers from that town...... Yes, it can be reached in half an hour...... Got it! ”

After the end of the call, the lieutenant had a strange look on his face, which was still very calm just now, he looked at the officers and soldiers around him, and ordered: "End of rest!" All of you are now moving towards your destination! ”

Despite their reluctance, the soldiers silently let their butts off the hard ground, and during the break, almost no one unloaded their knapsacks or weapons, and the strict discipline allowed the team to return to marching in less than half a minute. Amid the sonorous sound of tracks, the soldiers set off again with heavy but very determined steps.

The tenacity of the soldiers did not change the deep face of the lieutenant standing in the armored car, and for a long time his eyes were fixed on the town in front of him, as if some surprising monster might jump out of it at any moment.

When the group reached a distance of about 1 kilometer from the town, the lieutenant suddenly gave the order to stop, then turned to his soldiers and shouted:

"Now, everyone is listening, everyone is putting on their gas masks according to the standard operating regulations, and the leather gloves in your backpack are also put on for me! Be careful when you enter this town, don't touch anything in it, and don't go near any locals who are dead or still breathing, and if they try to get close to you, you will be killed! Do you understand? ”

Most of the German soldiers showed surprise on their faces at such an order that they had never heard, and one of them raised his right hand.

"Private Karl, what's the problem?" The officer's tone was as deep as his expression.

The young blonde soldier asked timidly, "Lieutenant, can you know what is going on there?" ”

This represented the doubts of the vast majority of the soldiers present, and almost all eyes were focused on the lieutenant company commander at once.

"It is said to be an important stronghold of the Japanese army, and three days ago, our bombers dropped special bombs there, which I think many of you have heard of!"

Someone immediately said: "Chemical bombs!" ”

The lieutenant did not shy away from saying, "That's right! It is highly likely that we were the first German ground troops to enter the area bombed by chemical bombs, and although the power of these bombs was usually only effective for a dozen hours, the superiors still prepared us for protection! Have more questions? ”

Most of the Marines in front of them were around 25 years old, and after the lieutenant finished speaking, some of them wanted to stop talking, some of them were expressionless, and only a few of them were afraid.

After waiting for about half a minute, the lieutenant said in a softer tone:

"Now, the higher authorities ordered us to go into the town to determine the situation, and eliminate the Japanese troops that may remain inside, and if anyone is unable to complete the mission due to fear, we can take the initiative to ask to stay here and stand by for support! Have it? ”

Some of the soldiers looked intently at the lieutenant, others tried to find something in the face, but no one spoke.

"Has anyone offered to stay and be on standby? Have it? The lieutenant asked again in an accentuated tone.

Still no one spoke, if the vast majority of them were fearless, the rest were concerned about the Marines and their reputation.

"Good!" The lieutenant glanced at everyone present, "Now, the 1st platoon is on standby, ready to support in case of an abnormal situation!" Platoon 2, Platoon 3, Platoon 4 follow me in, and everyone has to maintain a street fighting straggler support formation inside, understand? ”

Whether they wanted to go in or stay, the soldiers responded without exception:

"Understood!"

"Good!" The lieutenant pointed forward with his right hand, "Let's go!" ”

In this way, 231 officers and soldiers from the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th platoons of the 3rd Battalion, 1st Company, 1st Regiment, 2nd Marine Division, 231 officers and soldiers marched towards a town on the island of Okinawa that was full of mystery for man-made reasons. At the same time, several German marines were moving close to other Japanese towns and villages that had been the subject of chemical bombardments not long ago. (Full Text)